On turning 54

My 20s literally rocked!!!
I spent most of the decade going with Holly to local, regional, and national heavy metal concerts.

My Friend Holly – 1987-ish

My 30s was the absolute BEST decade of my entire life.
I was beautiful, healthy, had just bought my own house after my first divorce, and spent most of the decade hanging out with Amys3 at hockey games and was having an absolute ball!

Me (left) and two of the three Amys – 1998-ish

My 40s is when it all became too real for me.
I had just bought my own little 5 acre farm and had put up pasture fences, moved my horses in from London, Ohio, built a chicken shed and added a bunch of really awesome chickens, hand-raised two day-old peacocks, bought myself a John Deere tractor and was living the dream life I had always wanted since I was a little girl.

Life was beautiful.
I could wake up and see my horses through my bedroom window every morning. My two peacocks – Pete and RePete – were growing like crazy and were so spoiled that they would come peck on the sliding glass patio doors when they wanted to come into the house. My hens were laying stellar eggs, which I collected every morning, and my dogs could run free as the wind and were also having the time of their lives.

Then cancer!
I have to tell you, the chemotherapy and other treatments were absolutely preferable to the financial disaster the disease caused. I lost my farm because I couldn’t keep up with my mortgage. I had to find homes for my horses, my chickens, my peacocks, and my dogs, and it was so terribly upsetting to lose everything I had worked for since I was a child. Then I moved back to the city to live with my second husband at his sister’s home until we got back on our feet financially. Ugh!

All of that has come to pass.
I got divorced, had a great job, and was once again becoming financially stable.

Then, cancer again!
Fortunately, this time I had much better health insurance, was on my own, and had three wonderful nieces that took excellent care of me while I was laid up for six weeks. Once again, I’m in remission.

So, here I am having just turned 54 years old yesterday. I don’t know what the future holds as far as any recurrence, but it is more than likely to happen. So, I am making a huge, conscious effort to not miss another minute of my life. Thanks to my awesome job, I am now financially secure and I have been travelling a lot, having tons of fun with my nieces and my friends, and enjoying the finer things in life!